Tag: Nicholas Blechman

The Monday Tilley Watch is a meandering take on the cartoons in the current issue of The New Yorker.

The cover of the New Yorker‘s 93rd Anniversary issue is by Malika Favre. On newyorker.com Ms. Favre says, “I wanted to capture the poise and pose of the original Eustace Tilley, but do it as something simple and modern.” (You can read more of what she had to say about it here).

Rea Irvin’s Eustace Tilley hasn’t been on the cover of the magazine since 2011. Perhaps next year.

This anniversary issue includes more tampering with graphics. Contributors and department headings article headings appear in a new font (i.e., not the so-called Irvin font).

For instance: in the screen grab above, “American Chronicles” and “Jia Tolentino” appear in the new font. Is this some kind of slow motion move away from the Irvin typeface. Let’s hope not. Nicholas Blechman, the magazine’s creative director told Magculture in June of 2017:

The New Yorker is a magazine shaped by time. Very little has changed since the first issue in 1925, and that respect for legacy is part of our visual identity. Since I arrived in 2015, we’ve been fine tuning an incredibly resilient and elegant design. Our road map for design changes in the print magazine is mostly complete. I think the table of contents could be tweaked, and the design of the Fiction page could also be tinkered with. Most of the big innovations you will be seeing at The New Yorker will be online, as we contemplate a web redesign and introduce improvements to The New Yorker Today app.

One wonders why the “fine tuning” for a design Mr. Blechman called “incredibly resilient.” The design of the egg is incredibly resilient — is there a soul out there who believes the egg should be fine-tuned.

Alright, with all that out of the way, it’s on to the drawings. I’m keeping it short this week, just mentioning a handful of cartoons. There’s a terrific drawing by Edward Koren, a nod to Valentine’s day with a drawing by Mick Stevens, A really funnyJoe Dator drawing, another subway drawing — this one’s by P.C. Vey (hey, are subway drawings the new desert island drawings?). There’s a Farley Katz drawing from the school of film director instructing an actor (a lesser used theme, but still potent as ever. See what Peter Arno did with it in an un-pc drawing back in 1952).

In a break from recent tradition and a return to olden times, there are a whole lot of “spot” drawings by various illustrators (at least one is a cartoonist as well). Each pays homage to Rea Irvin’s Tilley. For the record, here’s a screen grab of all the contributors:

For more on each drawing in the issue check out the Cartoon Companion at the end of the week, when they’ll post their ratings.

Finally, here’s the classic Rea Irvin Talk masthead you won’t see in this anniversary issue: